Senators urge conferees to adopt risk-based responder formula
Lawmakers from "higher-risk" urban areas want more first responder dollars.
More than a dozen senators are encouraging House and Senate negotiators on the bill to fund the Homeland Security Department in fiscal 2006 to distribute most of the funding for emergency responders on the basis of risk.
"We have emphatically advocated -- and continue to advocate -- an allocation of federal homeland security dollars that is based on an assessment of risk," the senators wrote in an Aug. 5 letter to their colleagues.
The Senate in July attached language to revamp the current funding formula. The language would guarantee each state 0.55 percent and up to 3 percent for larger states.
A similar House measure, which was not attached to that chamber's spending bill, would guarantee 0.25 percent and 0.45 percent for certain border states.
The senators, mostly from larger states with higher vulnerabilities, urged a lower minimum guarantee for each state.